THE BEER NUT: CraftRoots opens Milford's first brewery

MILFORD – CraftRoots Brewing will be opening its doors to the general public on Saturday, holding its grand opening after more than a year in planning.

The brewery, located on 4 Industrial Way, is Milford’s first brewery, and owner Maureen Fabry hopes it becomes part of the fabric of the community.

“Our name is a play on the word ‘Grassroots,’” said Fabry, who founded the brewery with her wife Robin Fabry. “We want to be a brewery for the people of Milford.”

Fabry has a long history of brewing. She got her start at the now defunct Boston brewpub Brew Moon in the 1990s. From there, she moved on to John Harvard’s in Cambridge, Boston Beer Works and then a long stint at Berkshire Brewing Company in South Deerfield.

She left the industry to raise her twins, but in 2014, she launched CraftRoots.

“It was a small operation, I had a pilot brewing system in our garage,” said Fabry. “We sold it at a few local locations, but when we started selling out every time, we decided to open a brewery.”

The new CraftRoots taproom on Industrial Way is spacious. There is a lot of hand-painted artwork on the walls, all done by Robin Fabry. The bar tables are 55-gallon metal drums with wood tops, and the 1,000-square-foot taproom is open to the 5,000-square-foot brewery.

Fabry said the brewery is using ingredients exclusively from small malt and hop producers in New England.

“We ask people to drink deeper,” said Fabry. “Beer is an agricultural product, and we want to have that handmade feel and that agricultural feel. People like to try locally made product, and this is all local.”

The brewery can have up to eight beers on tap at one time. At a private opening event last Sunday, they had five beers – a pale ale, a pale ale with apricots, an IPA, a red IPA and a blonde ale. Other beers planned include an oatmeal stout and a double IPA.

Fabry’s brewing experience shows in her beers. They all have a more classic feel than many beers from new breweries. They incorporate both the old and the new. The IPA is the best, with a more malty backbone than many more modern IPAs, and the pale ale with apricots is tasty. The apricots do not overwhelm the rest of the beer.

CraftRoots offers beers in 5, 8 and 16 ounces to enjoy on-site. They will also offer bombers of some of their beers, as well as squealers, which are 32-ounce jugs of beer to go.

The CraftRoots taproom will be open 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 4 to 9 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Tours will be offered at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

CraftRoots will not serve food, but people are welcome to bring their own meals and snacks.

“We want people to think of us as a destination,” Fabry said.

Norman Miller is a Daily News staff writer. Email him at nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call 508-626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut. Follow him on Twitter @RealBeerNut and on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerBeerNut.